The End
by ForeverFrostwings
Summary: SPOILERS    With the world finally at peace, the fragments caused by chaos begin to fall into place, and one searcher finds the answer he's been dreading to hear.
1. A Phonecall

A/N: I wanted to give a little background on the genesis of this story. While i was playing Crisis Core i became rather attached to Zack's NPC friend 'Kunsel', and found myself wondering whatever happened to him? I was particularly moved by the emails he sends Zack towards the end, and I really wanted to give the poor guy some closure. So here is chapter 1.

Cloud was sitting at a table in Seventh Heaven, playing some sort of board game with Tifa and the children when the phone rang. It was strange for it to do so, because Cloud had taken a few weeks off of his deliveries in order to spend some time with his family. The community knew that, and so the phone-line had been silent for a good week.

"Excuse me…" Cloud apologised, taking his turn and then hurrying off to answer the phone, that continued ringing even when he took his time to see if it would stop, this suggested that the call was important, and despite the looks Tifa was giving him, pleading him to ignore the phone, he picked it up.

"Hello, Strife delivery service," he said in his usual monotone, making no effort to make the caller feel like they were welcome.

"Hello Mr. Strife," a friendly sounding male voice said on the other end of the phone, "you are an awfully difficult person to get hold of, you know that?"

Cloud frowned lightly and glanced over at Tifa, who was regarding him curiously as the children left the table to get themselves a drink.

"May I ask who is speaking?" Cloud asked, keeping his voice firm.

"You wouldn't know me," the voice replied light heartedly, the speaker actually sounded overjoyed that he was speaking to Cloud, "the name's Kunsel… but I have a bit too much to explain to do it over the phone… would you be able to meet me in the monument Square in Edge tomorrow at… mmm… 7?"

"In the morning?"

"Yeah, then. That OK?"

Cloud frowned, unsure whether to accept this man's proposal or not, though he was intrigued to find out what it was he wanted.

"Alright then, monument square tomorrow at 7," he repeated the time and place to check he had it right.

"Right then, enjoy your evening Mr. Strife," the speaker then hung up without another word.

"Who was that?" Tifa asked, quirking an eyebrow as Cloud sat back down and rolled the die.

"I don't know… I guess I'll find out tomorrow morning."

The sun hadn't really even begun to rise when Cloud woke and pulled himself out of bed gently so he didn't disturb Tifa, who remained in peaceful dreams by his side. He watched her sleep with a tender expression on his face for a few moments before he got dressed. He was contemplating over and over in his head who this 'Kunsel' character was. He didn't recognise the name at all, but something about the way the man spoke made him think that maybe this man knew more about him then he was letting on, and that always made Cloud uneasy. He was lacing up his last boot when Tifa stirred at sat up in bed, rubbing her eyes.

"Where are you going so early? Not a delivery?" her voice sounded mildly accusing and disappointed as she finished her question.

"No, not a delivery Tifa," he replied, giving her one of his half smiles as he stood and fetched a smaller component from his sword from its rack in the corner, "I'm just meeting someone… I should be back later; I'll try not to be long."

Tifa regarded him cautiously for a moment before she nodded and smiled, "Alright then, hurry back."

Cloud nodded and turned from the room, making quickly for Fenrir, which was parked down an alley beside their bar. The bike's loud purr broke the silence of the morning as Cloud started it up and headed down the street towards the heart of Edge where the Meteor monument stood, it did not take long to get there, and when he did it did not take long to identify his mysterious caller.

The square was empty bar one man who sat near the monument toying with what looked like a mobile phone. He looked up when he heard the bike drawing near and pulling to a stop close by.

"Ah Cloud. I would recognise your famous face." he called as Cloud stood his bike and walked over, shedding his riding goggles to regard the man with hard blue eyes.

"You must be Kunsel." Cloud replied, keeping his tone and expression reserved.

"Indeed I am," the man said, reaching into his coat to withdraw what looked like a piece of paper, "I was hoping you might be able to tell me a little about this man," he passed the object to Cloud who flipped it face up so he could see.

The eyes that stared back at him from the paper tore open a recently healed hole in his heart; his eyes were wide as he stared at the smiling face of his best friend in the whole world.

This was a photo and it showed two people, one was dressed in the uniform of a SOLDIER second class, and Cloud identified him as Kunsel, the man he was presently speaking to. The other wore the same uniform… it was the blue eyed black haired man who'd saved Cloud's life all those years ago… it was Zack.

"H-How did you know Zack?" Cloud asked, looking back to Kunsel with wide eyes.

"We joined SOLDIER around about the same time and were friends for his entire career, even after he got first," Kunsel's smile was one of a man reminiscing times long lost, "but after Zack left on that mission with Sephiroth to Nibelheim I never heard from him again… I checked Shinra's database after the fall, hoping to find out more. I was told by Shinra that he was dead, but I wanted more proof," he offered Cloud the phone he'd been toying with, and when the blond opened it he found a message on the screen. The sender was named "Shinra" and the message read simply that two SOLDIERs, First Class Zack Fair and First Class Sephiroth and three unnamed infantryman had been killed in the line of duty.

"One thing I did find in the database…" Kunsel continued, interrupting Cloud's thought, "is that you were one of the infantrymen sent to Nibelheim… and the official message said they were all killed… what happened in Nibelheim Cloud? What happened to Zack? I need to know… it's been too many years, waiting for him to message me."

Cloud looked up from the phone to meet Kunsel's gaze, his blue eyes filled with pain.

"You'll have to come back to Seventh Heaven with me… it's a long story…"


	2. The hard truth

A/N: Wow! So much interest on the first chapter. You've made me all excited to post more! This is chapter 2 of 3. I'll put chapter 3 up tomorrow. Just a short one today!

Enjoy!

When they reached Seventh Heaven Cloud offered his companion a seat and a drink. He accepted both and settled in to hear what Cloud had to tell him. He was just about to start his recount of those painful memories from years ago when Tifa peered around the corner of the stairwell.

"Everything alright Cloud?" she asked gently.

The blond nodded in reply, "but are you able to take the kids out for a while Tifa?" he asked gently, his eyes expressing as much thankful emotion as the blond could muster, he never had been one for emotions.

Tifa regarded him questioningly for a long moment before she nodded. "Of course, and I'll take them out the back way so we don't disturb you," the dark haired fighter then departed back up the stairs to ready the children.

"She seems nice," Kunsel said, all smiles over the top of his drink.

"That's Tifa… she and I grew up together, in Nibelheim."

"Nibelheim? So you lived there?" Kunsel sat forward now, his interest piqued.

"Yes… for a time… but it was rather different when Zack, Sephiroth and I went back there…"

From there Cloud recounted their inspection of the reactor, though he did not know exactly what transpired inside, as he'd been protecting Tifa outside. This led him to explain Sephiroth's odd behaviour and Zack's out-of-character temper.

"Sephiroth was locked in the mansion for easily a week before he came out… and when he came out… he burned Nibelheim to the ground."

Kunsel's expression became filled with disbelief, "No!"

But Cloud nodded the affirmative, "he burned down any building and cut down any person that got in his way," he then proceeded to tell of how he'd stayed behind to try and save any survivors from the fire while Zack had chased after Sephiroth, and how when he finally reached the reactor he'd found Zack semi-conscious on the stairs and Tifa lying heavily wounded not far away.

"I took Zack's sword and chased after Sephiroth… I caught him by surprise from behind, and thought I'd beaten him. So I went out to make sure Tifa was OK but while I was with her Sephiroth attacked again. I was badly injured… I don't remember to what extent, all I remember is I threw Sephiroth from the ledge into the reactor before I passed out," he paused there for a while, letting Kunsel soak in all this detail.

"So… Shinra must have covered up the whole incident… making it look like nothing had happened other than two of their SOLDIERs were killed fighting the monsters from the reactor…"

"Yes," Cloud replied, "they rebuilt Nibelheim and populated it with people who claimed they'd always lived there… so that no one would know it had been destroyed."

"Bastards," Kunsel hissed, his expression hateful, "what happened then?"

Cloud rubbed his forehead with his fingertips as he came to the hard part of his tale, the part he still hated to remember, "I don't remember much for quite some time… just snippets of Zack's face and things he said to me while we were travelling… I had Mako poisoning from all the experiments Shinra had been doing on us…" he sighed and paused for a moment to recollect his thoughts before he continued, "the first solid memory I have is of Zack shaking me before he stood and walked away, leaving me there on my own. I reached out to him, but I couldn't get my mouth to move, so he disappeared… I waited there for what must have been hours, clouds rolled in overhead and it began to rain. Finally, when I had the strength to at least pull myself from my hiding place, I went after Zack."

Cloud cast down his eyes sadly and Kunsel leaned in further, his expression somber, as if he knew what was coming up.

"The Shinra army had caught up with us… and Zack had gone to fight them while leaving me in safety… as I dragged myself out the first thing I noticed was that there were bodies and scattered weapons everywhere, there'd been a massive fight. I- I found Zack… heavily wounded and bleeding on the cliffs edge," Cloud stopped again, struggling to find the right words to end his miserable tale, "that's…. that's where I had to leave him Kunsel."

Silence reigned between the two men for a very long time, while Kunsel took in all he had just learned. Nearly 8 years now, of never knowing what had happened to his friend, living a half life, not knowing what to do with himself. Finally he found his voice enough to whisper, "so that's it then… Zack Fair really DID die at the hands of Shinra… like I always feared."

Much more inclined to expressing emotions, the ex-SOLDIER began to cry silently, the tears sliding down his face without any other signs.

"I can take you there Kunsel," Cloud eventually said, interrupting the silent grieving, "come with me…"


	3. Closure

A/N: And with this chapter, 'The End' comes to the end! Hope you've all enjoyed reading it! Your comments and criticisms are greatly appreciated!

It was a short ride out of a Midgar before they reached the cliff face where Zack Fair had taken his final breath. It was not hard to find for Cloud, he remembered it so vividly, that and it was no marked by an aging, rusting buster sword, which Cloud had left there to mark the spot where his best friend died so that he might live.

He pulled Fenrir up a short distance from where the blade stood silhouetted against a cloudy sky. The entire feel in the air was akin to that of the day when tragedy struck. He kicked down the stand and leaned the monstrous bike, dismounting and turning to face Kunsel as he too climbed off the bike.

Without a word his companion wandered towards where the sword stuck out of the ground and stood silently before the solemn marker.

Cloud didn't say anything as he walked over to stand a short way behind the ex-SOLDIER, knowing well enough that no words could possibly brighten this moment. He couldn't even imagine how hard it must have been for him to discover that one of his closest friends had died nearly seven years ago, and he had never known.

"You know…" Kunsel murmured, breaking the silence, "despite everything, I kept telling myself he'd come back OK…" he stretched out a hand and placed it on the pummel of the sword, but only for a second, quickly withdrawing the hand, a strange expression on his face, "it's hard to believe he's really dead… and for so long…"

Cloud was reluctant to share any feelings he had regarding Zack with anyone, these were memories and feelings that belonged only to him, but hearing the pain in Kunsel's voice made Cloud realise that he wasn't the only person in the world to feel Zack's loss so deeply. It must have hurt Aerith to learn of his death, and now he watched pieces of Kunsel fall apart right before his eyes.

"He just always seemed invincible…" Kunsel said, his hands balling into fists. Next moment, he punched the blade, his fists making a thud against the firmly held metal, the ground refusing to give up its burden.

"Ass!" he yelled, eyes burning with tears and fury, "I told you I'd come help! But you couldn't get me involved could you! And look where it got you! Arrogant Bastard!" his shouting complete, Kunsel dropped to his knees. Still Cloud stood back, remaining impartial and as cold as ever. He'd shed his tears for Zack and despite the lingering pain and sorrow there were no more tears to cry.

At that moment it began to rain, the drops falling so fast that within seconds everything was drenched, a horrid sense of déjà vu washed over Cloud as he turned his face towards the cloud choked sky. The drops felt the same on his skin, and for a moment in time he thought he could hear the laboured breathing and final desperate words of his fallen comrade… his dying mentor. When he looked back down he found Kunsel back on his feet, staring at the blade with empty, tear stained eyes.

"I never knew what to do with myself… all I wanted after I left Shinra was to find Zack… or at least some shred of evidence as to what may have happened… but now I don't feel any different… I still don't know what to do with myself… I always thought I'd be a SOLDIER… I thought it was my lot in life…" he reached out and pressed his palm to the cold blades aging surface, "what do I do now?"

At that moment, something extraordinary happened. There was the sound of a phone's message tone, and surprised, Kunsel reached into his pocket and produced the phone he'd given Cloud earlier, the one that bore the Shinra insignia.

"No one's messaged this phone in years… it's my old Shinra pager…" Kunsel said with a frown as he flipped it open and accessed the message.

He said nothing, but almost immediately his eyes became wide and glazed with disbelief.

Curious, Cloud moved forward to peer over the man's shoulder, what he saw nearly knocked him flat with surprise.

The message bore four words, words that Cloud had always planned to live his life by, before all manner of things messed it up for him.

_Hold onto your dreams._

The most surprising thing however, was the sender…

…. Zack Fair.

Even Cloud nearly lost his composure at that moment, but he managed to save it, unlike Kunsel, who collapsed into tears again.

They stood in silence, the rain still feel around them, drenching them to the bone. Cloud actually lost track of how long they'd been standing there, and it was only when the clouds parted to reveal the dying rays of sunlight that Cloud placed a hand on Kunsel's shoulder, the man had fallen silent some time before.

"We should head back to Edge…" he said gently, the largest expression of emotion he'd ever shown towards this man.

"Of course…" Kunsel said, pushing himself to his feet and turning to face the weathered weapon once more, "bye buddy…" he murmured before turning to follow Cloud back to Fenrir.

As the blond started the bike and they began to move off, Kunsel turned and took one last look at the mark Zack had left on the world. And for a second he could have sworn he saw the Silhouette of someone leaning against the buster sword, waving to him.


End file.
